


flowers and boxing gloves

by Lovelylime



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Getting Together, what can i say im a sucker for pretty ladies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24226618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovelylime/pseuds/Lovelylime
Summary: Tifa and Aerith grow closer.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Comments: 18
Kudos: 236





	1. 5:00AM

**Author's Note:**

> the reaction to my last tifa/aerith fic was incredible, so i'm back to fulfill my promise of writing more. i've got three chapters planned, each a little vignette, but we'll see where this ends up going.

In theory, early morning would be Aerith’s ideal time of day. The soft light of dawn, the dew in the garden, the chirping of the birds filtering through the air. In practice, mornings don’t have the same appeal. Most days, early morning Aerith is a grumbling, irritable mess, desperate to go back to sleep. But today is special. Today, she’s waking up for Tifa. 

It had started almost as soon as they met: Aerith asking Tifa as many leading questions about training and workouts as she could to get a little bit closer to those muscles, because, come on, it’s _Tifa Lockhart_. It worked, mostly. It also backfired a little bit, when asking Tifa about her routine as an excuse to see some abs lead to Tifa inviting Aerith along for her morning workout. Which meant Aerith had to wake up early. 

So here she is. Groaning and rolling out of her bed, stumbling to the bathroom to try to look presentable. Or a little more than presentable, considering she’s meeting Tifa. 

Their arranged meeting time was 5:00AM outside the slowly rebuilding Seventh Heaven. By the time Aerith finally kicks her butt into gear and starts running for Sector 7, it’s already 5:07. Shit. Aerith picks up the pace, trying not to think about how royally fucked she is. 

Apparently, all the luck in the universe manifested for Aerith today, because she stumbles to a stop outside the bar, she sees Tifa jogging towards her from the other direction. She grins, unfairly pretty for just having run. “Slept in too, did you?”

“Yeah,” Aerith pants, hands on her knees as she catches her breath, “But I thought you would have been on time, at least. Considering this is your routine.” 

Tifa playfully swats at Aerith’s shoulder. “Hey! I’m on time almost all the time, I just happened to mess up this once. Besides, I think I deserve some rest after everything that’s happened.” 

Tifa’s face falls at that last bit, and it squeezes at Aerith’s heart. She bops into Tifa, smiling as she says, “Well, given the choice between rest and killer muscles, you chose the muscles, and this is your punishment for looking so good.” 

The other woman laughs at that, ducking her head to try and hide her blush from the compliment. Aerith notices it anyway, and it sends a warm tingle down her spine. 

“Okay,” Tifa says, shaking her head as if to clear away thoughts. “You ready to sweat, princess?” 

It’s Aerith’s turn to blush. 

*** 

The workout is far less sexy than Aerith hoped it would be. She’d been over the moon at the idea of watching the sweat run down Tifa’s chest as she did pull-ups. She’d somehow forgotten that such a sight would mean that Aerith was also doing pull-ups. And now she’’s hanging from a bar as her arms turn to jelly. 

Any hopes she had of Tifa not noticing how spectacularly incompetent she was were crushed when she saw the other woman glance at her from the corner of her eye, trying and failing to stifle a laugh. 

Well, at least the jig is up. Aerith drops from the bar, gasping to get some air back into her lungs. “You know what,” she wheezes, “I’ve decided to choose rest over muscles.” 

Tifa laughs, dropping from the bar effortlessly and coming over to give Aerith a hand up. She takes it, savouring the warm press of Tifa’s fingers. “You did way better than I thought you would,” Tifa admits. 

Aerith looks up indignantly, “How bad did you think I would do?!” 

“Well…” 

Before she can fire back a retort, Aerith suddenly registers that their hands are still linked. She blushes all the way to her ears, but makes no move to pull away. Neither does Tifa. 

An awkward minute passes while both of them try to figure out what to do. Then Aerith swings their arms, saying, “How ‘bout next time I just come along to watch?” 

Tifa laughs, and it’s a beautiful sound. Her grip on Aerith’s hand tightens, and she says, “Only if you actually show up on time.”


	2. long-awaited shopping trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this scene was so cute how could i not

“Do you think the bar needs a pair of turquoise lamps?” Aerith asks, staring at them as she and Tifa meander through the aisle of the store. 

“Not… particularly, no?” Tifa says. They’ve been in this latest stop on their congratulatory shopping spree for less than ten minutes, and Aerith’s pointed out upwards of a dozen ridiculous items they could theoretically use back at Seventh Heaven. She pouts every time Tifa shoots one down. It’s pretty adorable. 

Tifa’s pretty sure by now that she and Aerith are on their way to becoming… something. The handholding has become a staple of their time together (they’re doing it right now, and did all the way through Wall Market), and recently Aerith’s started giving her a kiss on the cheek in greeting. Tifa isn’t really sure what it means, because Aerith never seems to expect her to reciprocate. 

Aerith pulls back after every peck on the cheek or arm around her shoulder, like she was expecting Tifa to laugh and push her off. She does it for everything except the handholding, but only because Tifa initiates it. Sometimes, watching Aerith glance off nervously and pull back after doing something affectionate makes Tifa want to grab her by the shoulders and pull her back. She’s held back by the possibility that Aerith simply doesn’t want to be affectionate with her for that long; that she’s uncomfortable with it. So they’ve been doing this little dance for a while: knowing smiles, holding hands, cuddling, but pulling back before it turns into anything else. 

And now they’re wandering their way through every respectable shop in Wall Market, spending what’s definitely too much gil for their wallets at Aerith’s instance to treat themselves, maddeningly close but not close enough. A gap between them Tifa knows how to close, but doesn’t know if she should. 

“Ooh, what about a neon Honeybee sign? It’s half off, too.” 

Tifa snorts. “Isn’t that stealing? Surely they’ve copyrighted that.” Aerith just shrugs, a smile playing at her lips. 

They keep walking in silence for a bit, leaving the store behind and heading back into the street. It isn’t long before something across the street catches Aerith’s eye, and she tugs Tifa along as she dashes toward it. “Look!” Aerith exclaims, “It’s a chocobo-themed pinball machine, it’s so cute! Come on, Tifa, we gotta get it.” 

Tifa groans, looking at the unbelievably kitschy machine. It’s got a giant plastic chocobo head emerging from front. “We can’t. I mean, seriously, it’s kind of hideous. And where would we even put it?” 

“Tifaaaa” Aerith whines, wrapping her arms around the other woman’s waist. They stay like that for a blissful second, before Aerith starts to pull away. This time, driven by an urge to enjoy as much of that warmth as possible, Tifa grabs her hands and yanks her back into place. Aerith startles, and then quickly relaxes into holding her, resting her chin on Tifa’s shoulder. “So you’ll at least think about it?” 

“I’ll think about,” Tifa says, leaning back into Aerith’s embrace. She could really stay like this forever, corny chocobo and all. 

It’s at this point that Cloud clears his throat from where he's been following behind them, arms full of various shopping bags. “Please don’t. I really don’t think I can carry that by myself.” 

Aerith and Tifa simultaneously shush him, staying just like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to me for actually writing a second chapter of something lmao. this was some fwuff, the next chaps gonna be a lot more substantial, talking-about-ur-feelings stuff.
> 
> anyway, love u


	3. personal cheerleader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally put some things into words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall im so sorry it took this long, but long story short i took a week-long mental health break and writing kind of fell by the wayside, but i'm back and i finally finished something multichap? go me

After everything she’s been through, Aerith can confidently say that she knows what the worst sight on the planet is, and it’s seeing Tifa Lockhart cry. No matter the cause, watching someone that strong, that caring, break down rips at Aerith’s heart every time. She tries to avoid it at all costs, always ready with a hug if she thinks something’s dragging Tifa down. They’ve spent enough time together by now that Aerith can see the signs of something weighing on her. Except, this time, Tifa’s avoiding her. 

It wasn’t really noticeable at first; but the more Tifa pulled away or went home early or bailed on her, the more uncertain Aerith felt. What if she was making Tifa uncomfortable? The other woman only recently started reciprocating Aerith’s embraces, what if that was her just resigning to it? Gods, Aerith hates feeling like this: uncertain, indecisive, insecure.

It happened again tonight. There were reports of lesser drakes causing some trouble on the outskirts of the slums, so she and Tifa had planned to make an evening of it, using the reward money from the job to go get dinner. But then a couple hours ago, Tifa cancelled, saying something about “not feeling up to it”. 

So now Aerith’s here, spinning around in a stool at Seventh Heaven, stuck watching Cloud play darts instead of fighting monsters with Tifa by her side. She’s still aimlessly spinning around when Barrett and Marlene get back from their trip to a chocobo farm (Marlene holding a stuffed chocobo taller than she is and grinning ear to ear). 

“Hey!” Barrett calls when he sees Aerith, “What happened to drake hunting?” 

“Oh, Tifa wasn’t feeling up to it,” Aerith sighs. 

Barrett, who’d been helping Marlene but her giant plush chocobo in its own chair, turned to Aerith with a frown. “Really? She seemed super gung-ho last time when I mentioned the drake posting to her.” 

“I know,” Aerith says, trying not to sigh again. “But she called to cancel a couple hours ago.” 

“Hm. Did the two of you have a fight or something? You’re normally thick as thieves, but not so much lately.” 

Aerith groans, spinning to face the bar so she can bury her face in her arms. “No? At least, I don’t think so. I don’t know what Tifa thinks.”   
“Well then,” Barrett says, “Why don’t you go ask her? It’s not like you don’t know where she lives.” 

“But… what if she is mad at me?” Aerith all but whispers, head still in her arms. 

Barrett shrugs. “Then apologize for whatever it is you did and go back to being friends. Or don’t, but at least stop moping around.” 

“I’m not moping,” Aerith mutters, but it’s not like Barrett doesn’t have a point. She should just talk to Tifa about it. Try to fix whatever this is. And if she can’t… Aerith doesn’t wanna think about that. 

“Oh, you’re moping,” Cloud calls from across the room, followed by a _thunk_ and a, “Heh, high score.” 

Aerith groans again. 

***

Aerith can feel her heart thumping in her chest as she climbs the stairs to Tifa’s apartment. But even if the results of this visit are awful, at least Aerith will know the reason why. She won’t be paralyzed by uncertainty anymore. 

She knocks before she can psych herself out of it, and to her surprise Tifa opens it immediately. They both stare for a minute, Aerith’s hand still poised where the door had been, before Tifa looks down and steps back to let her in. 

Tifa sits on the edge of the bed, still looking down at the floor, while Aerith hovers awkwardly in the middle of the room. The silence between hangs for a moment, thick and heavy. And then Aerith asks, “Was it… me? I mean, did I do something wrong, or--” 

Tifa jerks up. “No! No, it was me, I was…” She trails off, and then takes a deep breath. “Aerith, you… mean a lot to me. Ever since we met, you’ve been there by my side when I need you. I rely on you, more than is fair. And… I don’t know what our relationship is. I don’t know what you _want_ our relationship to be. I didn’t want to keep burdening you if it wasn’t what you wanted.” At this, Tifa finally looks Aerith in the eye. “I’m sorry for ditching you out of nowhere, but I didn’t want things to be disingenuous while I tried to figure this out.” 

A moment passes, each of them holding their breath. 

And then Aerith says, “Are you fucking kidding me?” 

Tifa startles, but Aerith charges ahead before she can open her mouth. “You--I woke up before dawn just to watch you work out! I hold your hand every day! We go on dinner dates, the bridal-carried me home after that time with the wererats, and you still didn’t know what I wanted from this relationship?” 

Aerith climbs up onto the bed beside Tifa, wrapping her arms around the other woman’s shoulders. “You’re so dumb sometimes. I’m always here for you because I _want_ to be. I want to be with you! I thought I was the one reading too much into this. So, I mean, I guess we’re both dumb?” 

Tifa laughs at that, and then grabs Aerith by the waist and tugs her down until they’re laying side by side on the bed. “Well, now I feel like it was obvious,” Tifa admits. 

“Well, it kind of was there, buddy.” 

“Yeah, okay, but you weren’t doing anything about it either! You said you had the same doubts I did, so this isn’t exactly a blameless game.” 

“Tifa?” Aerith sighs. 

“Yeah?” 

“Stop talking and kiss me.” 

And Tifa does. And then does again, and again, and again. 

*** 

They’re babysitting Marlene in Seventh Heaven a few weeks later, Aerith in Tifa’s lap, absolutely content, when Cloud goes, “Wait, are you guys dating? When did this happen?” 

They look at him incredulously, and then Tifa starts laughing while Aerith just sighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FIRST AND FOREMOST i implore you to donate to the following if you're able to:   
> Northstar Health Collective: https://www.northstarhealthcollective.org/donate   
> Reclaim the Block: https://secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy0MKXTIcQ2  
> Black Visions Collective: https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2  
> these bail funds: https://www.autostraddle.com/43-bail-funds-you-can-absolutely-support-right-now/ 
> 
> secondly, you may be wondering, "lime, you've written a bunch of fics but you've like never described a kiss?" well lads, i've never been kissed in my fucking life so i simply dont know how that shit works
> 
> anyway, i love you all, stay safe

**Author's Note:**

> i love you <3


End file.
